Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Today’s text

Psalm 63:5-8

My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,
   and my mouth praises you with joyful lips
when I think of you on my bed,
   and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
for you have been my help,
   and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
My soul clings to you;
   your right hand upholds me.

Reflection

In the darkness of early morning, I chant my thanks to you, hoping my praise will carry me into the sweetest joy of my life.

I hunger once more to feel your presence around me, for I have known you in the darkness and in the light and on nights when I called out for the peace only you can bring.

So I call to you again even as I cling to moments I felt myself inside your love, held as in a cocoon, sheltered so close there was no separation between my heart and yours.

I remember chanting into the darkness as I lied in a borrowed bed in Pennsylvania. Covers pulled over my head, sleep would not come for the joy of having spoken from the depth of my heart, telling what I had seen and known of you as I traveled to places far and near.

“Thank you,” I repeated. “Thank you,” over and over. “Thank you for letting me see and know and praise you.”

Wherever I traveled in those days I went looking for you, not just for stories to tell or adventures to share, but you.

Sharing the grace amid the pain of those places carried me into your heart, so that your love surrounded me. I knew you as close as my breath, as warm and inviting as the covers pulled over my head.

I would tell my stories, no, your stories, stories of your life amid the life of this broken but beloved world. Gratitude would fill me that you should allow me to see and tell … and in the telling to know you more deeply.

I went looking for you, and you found me. I told stories, and you found my heart in every one, moving me to chant my thanks into the darkness.

Now, the morning comes once more, and I thirst to know you as fully as in those moments of sharing and telling. In knowing you, my soul swells with joy, and I savor the sweet satisfaction of soul you bring.

So I chant my thanks for the day, for the light, for one more chance to love and be loved, hoping my soul will be lifted into your presence.

And from the darkness of my soul comes that voice I know. “Go into the day,” you say. “I am there. Go, see, tell and share. I will find you amid the stories of your life, and you will know me in the telling. This is your way with me and my way in you.

“It is not my way with everyone, but I will come and satisfy the soul of all who hunger for me. They need only open their hearts to see the places I find them, the way that leads to joy, the place I shadow their lives.”

Just so, we know the way of joy … every morning.

Pr. David L. Miller